My good friend, Connie Ruel and I have a common passion for food and wine.  We love exploring new restaurants and wineries, always trying new things, wherever we go.  We met about 20 years ago in Portland, Oregon – she owned 2 restaurants and I sold her wine, as I was a wine Representative at the time.  We quickly found our bond and not only do we LOVE most wine, but we also seem to have a very similar pallet.  Her ability to pair her menu items with specific wine flavors is spectacular.  Over the years, she has created some wonderful wine dinners at her restaurants in Portland and later in the Denver, CO area –  I have helped plan some, worked some and eaten at many.  On a trip to Colorado this past Fall, I was fortunate enough to arrive the day that she was hosting an event at Kingman Estate Winery.  Her cousin was in town for a book tour and Connie started off the evening with this little story, as guests mingled, drank wine and indulged in her amazing appetizers and dessert offerings.  This had previously been published in the “Denver Magazine” and I asked Connie if I could showcase it here on my blog – so here is a story from my first guest author, Connie Ruel:

It’s springtime and I’m being conceived!  But wait!  Is that my mother or my father?  I keep looking, but I’m not sure; I do believe it’s both.  You heard me, the reproductive organs of both genders are there.  Don’t be alarmed, my parents are hermaphrodites.  Does that surprise you?  It certainly shouldn’t, because, for my kind, it is the norm.

Let me introduce myself, I come from the species of vitis vinifera, known in your world as a grape.  Oh, and not just any grape, a grape used to make the finest of wines.  Our family name is Viognier, ancestral of the Rhone Valley in France.  I’m proud of my heritage for, if handled properly, with great knowledge and passion, I can be made into an elegant floral wine, worthy of kings, or Kingman’s as this story will tell.

Me and my relatives are a picky bunch.  Of course, being able to pollinate ourselves is pretty cool, but we have a sensitivity to earth’s elements and only do it if the moment is right.  Just last week, it was windy and I totally lost the mood.  Then it turned cold and, well, SHRINKAGE!  Even when there’s just a little chill in the air, it simply causes me to lock up my chastity belt!  And if it rains?  Well, might as well pull up the covers and call it a day!  You see, we are fair weather fornicators.  Only when it’s calm, peaceful and perfectly warm well we put out.

This epicene process is called “flowering”.  Doesn’t seem too romantic, but if all goes as planned, tiny white bunches of flowers will grow into, you guessed it, me.  If something goes wrong, and the stars don’t align, the flowers don’t appear and my siblings will never be.  Maybe that is why vitis vinifera makes such great wine!  We are delicate creatures, unlike our extended cousins, vitis labrusca – not to be confused with that purply Italian wine, Lambrusco – they only work as male and female pollinators, king of like you humans.

Somehow, though, the magic happens and by the beginning of summer, we have become small bulbs with lots of room to move.  Through the next months, we just hang out, my siblings and I, clinging to the vine and basking in the sun.  There are about twelve of us huddled in a group and in time, our green firm skin transforms into a slightly yellow-mint hue.  Our tiny hard bodies soften and begin to bulge.  You might think this would have us running to the gym, but alas, soft bulging mid-bellies is what we strive for.  By the end of summer, we are all so plump, our space becomes tight and uncomfortable.

It’s almost a relief when our human friend – I’ve heard he is called Kaibab – comes along with a shiny gadget in hand.  He grabs one of my cousins, holds him up to the gadget and peers into him as if looking into his soul.  He then shouts with joy “twenty-three brix! time to harvest!”

I’m not sure what that means, but it isn’t long until our vine is gently snipped and we’re tossed into a giant bin, all cozy with piles of other family members.  Just as it starts to get a little uncomfortable, all squished together with the cousins, a very tall charming human looks over us and picks up one of our clusters.  With a calm tone, he says, “I’ll take the whole lot”.

We travel by refrigerated truck for quite some time and are finally transferred to a large cool warehouse-type building.  This is when the good stuff happens, but I’m not going to get into the whole process of how Doug carefully, with expertise, destems, presses, ferments and bottles us, melding our family into fabulous wine.  Just rest assured he handles us with the utmost care, knowledge, and talent.  I do, however, want to share what happens when a chef gets her lips on us.

Legend has it that about four or five years ago, at a wine festival in Breckenridge, a chef, passionate about the marriage of food and wine, got to taste the product of my forefathers.  Earlier that year, Doug had chosen and carefully transformed them into the floral nectar dubbed as our namesake, Kingman Estate Viognier.  The chef was so ecstatic about the perfect balance she ran to a nearby chocolatier booth returning to Doug, with a white chocolate truffle in her hand, exclaiming, “You have to try this pairing! Your wine is fabulous! And paired with food? Well, it’s simply magic!”.

That day was the beginning of a marriage of passion and talent: the winemaker and the chef.  This dynamic duo went on to do many multi-course dinners together.  Some at the chef’s restaurant, some at the winery.  No matter where they were, the chef’s food enhanced the flavor of the wine and in return, the wine gave the food another level of deliciousness.  It is said that at every winemaker dinner event, moans of delight from diners filled the air and my forefathers were very proud.

So, now we sit in the bottle, my fam’and I, just hoping to be the next bottle opened and enjoyed with something fabulous.  Maybe if I “wine” loud enough, the next delicious food and wine pairing will be with me!

I hope you enjoyed the story about grapes as much as I did and if you’re ever in the Denver Colorado area, please take some time to visit Kingman Estate Winery and maybe you’ll be lucky enough to attend an event that includes Connie’s food pairings.

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